


Hamburg, 1961

by Hypatia_66



Series: An UNCLE Gazetteer [8]
Category: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (TV)
Genre: ABC Challenge, Community: section7mfu, Gen, Hamburg, References to the Beatles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2018-06-12
Packaged: 2019-05-21 10:30:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14913704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hypatia_66/pseuds/Hypatia_66
Summary: LJ ABC Affair II. Cities A-ZIllya persuades Napoleon to go to a music club in a red light district.





	Hamburg, 1961

The mission completed, they had a night free before flying back to New York, but Napoleon hadn’t taken to this city. It was fully restored from near total destruction during the war and like the West German economy generally, it was thriving. But there was a very sleazy downside.

“Illya, I didn’t take you for the type that hangs around red-light districts.”

“I don’t. This is a music club we’re going to. You’ll see. It just happens to be in an insalubrious area.”

Hamburg, notorious for vice and crime, appeared to consist mainly of red-light districts. Napoleon eyed his not-quite-new partner with suspicion after looking around at the ladies of the night on every corner. Illya had insisted that he dress in casual, even scruffy, clothes to avoid the beating-up that his normal debonair look would attract. He had also persuaded him to have his hair flopped over his brow, not carefully combed back with hair cream, so he felt like a scarecrow. Illya managed without apparent effort to look both casual and neat. His bright hair fell forward naturally at the front and brushed his collar (or in this case, his turtleneck) at the back in a way that caused his new employers in the USA anguish but fitted these surroundings perfectly.

“This group was here a year ago. They were awful then, but even by the time I had to go back to Berlin, they had become quite good – you’ll like them, I think.”

Napoleon doubted that, but in the interests of partnership was willing to give it a try. However, he was far from impressed when four very scruffy, long-haired individuals appeared on the stage – in leather and wearing what Napoleon in his fastidious judgement decided were not recently-laundered shirts (a condition which probably applied to the rest of their attire, too). He put his hands to his ears when they launched into a very loud number and retired to the bar, which was as far back as one could get. At the end of the number, Illya joined him.

“What do you think?”

“I can’t _hear_ myself think.”

“Oh. Don’t you like it?”

Napoleon saw the anxious look in the blue eyes and the diffident stance … and smiled. “They’ve got something, I’ll give you that. But I thought they’d be singing in German.”

“They’re English. From Liverpool – there seem to be several groups from there. These will be on all night – do you want to stay?”

“All _night_?” Napoleon was aghast.

“I mean this group will play till the early hours. We can go before that.”

“Thank you. Is this the backing group I saw a notice about – the Beat Brothers?”

“Yes. Their proper name sounds comical in a German accent and people laugh at it – so the notices call them Beat Brothers as a kind of generic term for an English backing group. They call themselves the Beatles.”

Napoleon laughed. That just sounded silly.

**Author's Note:**

> The Beatles learned their trade the hard way in Hamburg, where not only did they have to live in squalid conditions and play all night, but their name sounded like ‘peedles’, which means a small boy’s private parts.
> 
> In English, the name did just sound like a silly pun at first.


End file.
